I will be taking the remainder of the year off for the holiday's. Today was exciting though! The market exploded to the upside! I can disclose that I did make some money.
The next time you hear from me I will have the final 1 year performance results for my Monster Portfolio 2011. Hopefully, it will be a positive one. LOL!
Merry Christmas! I'm looking forward to donating some money to my charity of choice. Now the question is how much.... Only 8 more days of trading until the close of 2011.
Clay-
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Highly Focused
I've come to realize that my strategy with the Monster Portfolio 2011 hasn't bared much fruit for this year and I'm very disappointed in my performance. Very boring year! So I thought to myself "What could I do to up the ante? Make more money that is! I reflected on my past investments and I had a total of 18 buys and 15 sells for a total of 33 Trades that cost $231.00 which equates to 11.60% of the starting portfolio balance of $1990.97. Hmm... that $231 could have came in handy.
What this tells me is that I was buying and selling to much. Most importantly this tells me that I need to allow more time in between my trades to allow stock prices to come down even lower. It appears that I had a tendency to sell and then jump right back into the market to soon! I guess in a way I don't like to miss a single moment of an opportunity to make money. This will definitely change leading into next year.
So for 2012 I plan to make a few changes.
1. My goal is to cut my transaction fees by about 40% to 20 trades, which will add about $90.00 to my performance.
2. Spend more time researching stocks to increase my opportunity for higher gains.
3. Allow myself more time in between investments.
4. Concentrate my funds in a maximum of 2 stocks at one time. Transaction fees will eat me alive if I diversify to much. (At least until the portfolio reaches $10,000 in value)
5. Use technical analysis to my advantage and sell out when the charts determine a negative change in the trend.
Now you may wonder why I named the blog post highly focused. Here is why. I've come to the conclusion that many stocks move 10-15% a few times a year and a majority of stocks move 5% consistently throughout the year. If I focus on the charts and buy only when the stock is in oversold status I'm extremely confident I can drastically increase my portfolio's performance. This is exactly how successful traders make money. They come up with a set of rules and they stick to them. If the math is right I would only have to catch a stock move of 5% twice for the year to finish up 10%. 10% was my goal and currently I haven't reached that goal. That is why my new strategy is to put extreme focus into 1-2 investments at a time.
This will be something new for me as I like to hold onto my investments past a 5-10% gain, but 2012 will be a learning experience! I'm very excited to test out my new strategy and look forward to seeing a better outcome for 2012.
Clay-
What this tells me is that I was buying and selling to much. Most importantly this tells me that I need to allow more time in between my trades to allow stock prices to come down even lower. It appears that I had a tendency to sell and then jump right back into the market to soon! I guess in a way I don't like to miss a single moment of an opportunity to make money. This will definitely change leading into next year.
So for 2012 I plan to make a few changes.
1. My goal is to cut my transaction fees by about 40% to 20 trades, which will add about $90.00 to my performance.
2. Spend more time researching stocks to increase my opportunity for higher gains.
3. Allow myself more time in between investments.
4. Concentrate my funds in a maximum of 2 stocks at one time. Transaction fees will eat me alive if I diversify to much. (At least until the portfolio reaches $10,000 in value)
5. Use technical analysis to my advantage and sell out when the charts determine a negative change in the trend.
Now you may wonder why I named the blog post highly focused. Here is why. I've come to the conclusion that many stocks move 10-15% a few times a year and a majority of stocks move 5% consistently throughout the year. If I focus on the charts and buy only when the stock is in oversold status I'm extremely confident I can drastically increase my portfolio's performance. This is exactly how successful traders make money. They come up with a set of rules and they stick to them. If the math is right I would only have to catch a stock move of 5% twice for the year to finish up 10%. 10% was my goal and currently I haven't reached that goal. That is why my new strategy is to put extreme focus into 1-2 investments at a time.
This will be something new for me as I like to hold onto my investments past a 5-10% gain, but 2012 will be a learning experience! I'm very excited to test out my new strategy and look forward to seeing a better outcome for 2012.
Clay-
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Investing In Individual Stocks
If any of my followers are wondering my Monster Portfolio 2011 has improved since my last post and I'm on track towards my aggressive goal of finishing up 10% on the year. Also, on top of that I will be donating 10% of my earnings towards my charity of choice.
Today I would like to discuss investing in individual stocks and what I have learned over the past 9 yrs of investing. I can honestly say that investing in individual stocks can be difficult. You can make a lot of money and you can lose of lot of money. The difference between winning and losing comes down to the amount of time and energy you put into researching a potential investment. During my first couple of years of investing in individual stocks my success was hit or miss. Maybe I was lucky that my first investment of Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) had a positive outcome! Frankly the only reason I invested in the company was I thought it was a cool product and the price of the stock was cheap to my standards. At a $1.82 a share being a broke college student this stock was right up my ally.
This strategy didn't work for long as I chose other cheap stocks that didn't work out very well. My performance was rather negative. My biggest investing mistake I have ever made was a company called Gamez n Flix (GZFX) The company had a great concept similar to Net Flix. They rented video games and movies through the mail. Unfortunately, this company wasn't well capitalized and the management was sub par. The outcome was I invested my money and I never received it back. LOL! They went bankrupt! This stock was cheap for a reason. If I would have done my research I would have saved myself a lot of money.
Over the years I learned from my mistakes and my performance has improved with my stock picking abilities. I contribute my success to extensive research, patience, and constantly looking for my next investment. I have learned that if you over stay your welcome in a fast moving stock that eventually you give all of your gains back and then some. My time horizon is situational. I primarily invest in growth companies and as many of you have seen investing in individual stocks can be quite volatile. The best resolution to reduce volatility is to diversify your portfolio. Another strategy that I use is to always have another investment opportunity on the back burner. If you believe your investment has increased in value and isn't sustainable you have 3 choices
1. Sit tight and ride out the volatility
2. Sell into strength and wait for the price of your investment to come back down to cheaper prices
3. Sell into strength and invest in other companies that have a better potential for return
I like choice number 2 and 3. Option 3 works well! No it's not fool proof, but if you can sell into strength and cycle your money into a better investment opportunity the potential for success is increased drastically! Constantly keeping your money moving allows you to educate yourself on other companies, make money, and reduce risk all at the same time. Plus its extremely fun and it forces you to pay attention to your money. A majority of the time I sell a stock is because I have a better opportunity elsewhere. This allows my original investment to come back down to buyable prices and I cycle in and out of my favorites. On the other hand if you buy and hold your stocks through high volatility you could make money, but now your up against buyer's remorse, emotional attachment, and the possibility of missing other great investments. I have experienced this first hand.
I'm not saying buy and hold is bad, but this strategy doesn't work particularly well with high growth stocks. If you are going to buy and hold you are better off investing in well established dividend paying companies with consistent growth. This strategy didn't work for me because I became bored and sold the stock at the wrong time.
In conclusion find a strategy that works for you! Constantly challenge yourself to learn each and everyday of how to become a better investor. You can't always make money and at times you will want to give up. In the end if you come out on the other side with more money you shouldn't be complaining. My recommendation is to do your research, be patient and constantly keep your money moving. Those 3 key factors have helped me develop a winning strategy.
Clay-
Today I would like to discuss investing in individual stocks and what I have learned over the past 9 yrs of investing. I can honestly say that investing in individual stocks can be difficult. You can make a lot of money and you can lose of lot of money. The difference between winning and losing comes down to the amount of time and energy you put into researching a potential investment. During my first couple of years of investing in individual stocks my success was hit or miss. Maybe I was lucky that my first investment of Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) had a positive outcome! Frankly the only reason I invested in the company was I thought it was a cool product and the price of the stock was cheap to my standards. At a $1.82 a share being a broke college student this stock was right up my ally.
This strategy didn't work for long as I chose other cheap stocks that didn't work out very well. My performance was rather negative. My biggest investing mistake I have ever made was a company called Gamez n Flix (GZFX) The company had a great concept similar to Net Flix. They rented video games and movies through the mail. Unfortunately, this company wasn't well capitalized and the management was sub par. The outcome was I invested my money and I never received it back. LOL! They went bankrupt! This stock was cheap for a reason. If I would have done my research I would have saved myself a lot of money.
Over the years I learned from my mistakes and my performance has improved with my stock picking abilities. I contribute my success to extensive research, patience, and constantly looking for my next investment. I have learned that if you over stay your welcome in a fast moving stock that eventually you give all of your gains back and then some. My time horizon is situational. I primarily invest in growth companies and as many of you have seen investing in individual stocks can be quite volatile. The best resolution to reduce volatility is to diversify your portfolio. Another strategy that I use is to always have another investment opportunity on the back burner. If you believe your investment has increased in value and isn't sustainable you have 3 choices
1. Sit tight and ride out the volatility
2. Sell into strength and wait for the price of your investment to come back down to cheaper prices
3. Sell into strength and invest in other companies that have a better potential for return
I like choice number 2 and 3. Option 3 works well! No it's not fool proof, but if you can sell into strength and cycle your money into a better investment opportunity the potential for success is increased drastically! Constantly keeping your money moving allows you to educate yourself on other companies, make money, and reduce risk all at the same time. Plus its extremely fun and it forces you to pay attention to your money. A majority of the time I sell a stock is because I have a better opportunity elsewhere. This allows my original investment to come back down to buyable prices and I cycle in and out of my favorites. On the other hand if you buy and hold your stocks through high volatility you could make money, but now your up against buyer's remorse, emotional attachment, and the possibility of missing other great investments. I have experienced this first hand.
I'm not saying buy and hold is bad, but this strategy doesn't work particularly well with high growth stocks. If you are going to buy and hold you are better off investing in well established dividend paying companies with consistent growth. This strategy didn't work for me because I became bored and sold the stock at the wrong time.
In conclusion find a strategy that works for you! Constantly challenge yourself to learn each and everyday of how to become a better investor. You can't always make money and at times you will want to give up. In the end if you come out on the other side with more money you shouldn't be complaining. My recommendation is to do your research, be patient and constantly keep your money moving. Those 3 key factors have helped me develop a winning strategy.
Clay-
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